Tri2Cook

Ahh! I missed that aspect of what you were saying. Thanks again.

Thanks! I'll definitely keep that one... and hopefully do a better job of getting around to making it than I have with the Babka. The ordering option isn't an option. It might be worth it just to know what it's supposed to be like but their site says they only ship within the U.S. One thing I did notice on the site is the surprisingly extensive variety of flavors. That should make it even more fun to play around with. Thanks for that information. I think Norm has given me the perfect starting place considering the provenance of his recipe but that doesn't mean a little additional research wouldn't be fun.

So Norm, what's the difference between Povitica and Babka? I've had a couple of Babka recipes staring at me for a few years now and still not got around to making them and then you come along with a picture of an incredibly delicious looking bread called "Povitica" which is new to me but looks really similar to the pictures for the Babka recipes I have. I've already started looking for recipes so I could probably just do some comparing to figure out the differences but it seemed easier to just ask.

Based on what I've seen on most internet sites and blogs, I assumed the standard was to simply add the words "adapted from" to the beginning of the recipe and let it roll. Seriously though, for the 10 minutes or so that I made my attempt at blogging, I wasn't sure about the ethics so I just didn't include any recipes that weren't my own. So it could be interesting information for many.

As a person who makes their living in a restaurant, I'm still asking: why do we care what the restaurants prefer? They're not feeding us out of the kindness of their heart, regardless of how high-end, new or trendy the place is, they just want our money. If I'm giving them my money, I don't really care if they like how I choose to give it to them.

I haven't reached the point of worrying over someone else touching the slice of bread I'm about to eat or tasting my food with their already used fork. If I know them, and I'm assuming if we're sharing food off of our plates that I do, I'm just not worried about it. I've made it this far without paying a penalty for that lack of concern. If it ever comes back to bite me in the butt, I'll be sure to post about it here and take my "we told you so" comments like a champ. I do however completely respect other people's right to not share that attitude. I'd never eat off of someone's plate uninvited. My only real sharing complaint involved my ex-wife. The entire time we were dating and married, she would never order fries at restaurants but then would proceed to eat half of my fries from my plate. No amount of "if you want fries, order them" helped. Saying "keep your hands off of my fries" just caused an argument. But even with that, her eating food from my plate wasn't the issue. The issue was that I wanted my f'ing fries.

The was included to indicate that I was just being silly with that little add-on. The point I was trying to make basically boils down to: why do we care? If a group wants a single check, no problem. If they want separate checks, no problem. If the group wants a single check and one individual says "I'd prefer my own check", let them have their own check. Still no problem.

I don't understand why groups who intend to pay separately would have an aversion to requesting separate checks. Separate checks when paying separately doesn't feel like a burden to me, it feels like common sense. For those not wanting to divide it evenly, why put it all together and then spend time taking it all back apart? The idea that it's some sort of burden on waitstaff is silly. I've worked in places where each guest got their own check as standard policy and it didn't cause any problems or confusion for the waitstaff or the kitchen. If the group is fine with one check, great. If the group wants separate checks, get separate checks*. It really is that simple. *And if you have that one bigshot in the group that always tells the server to put it on one check after the rest of the group asks for separate, when the check comes, hand it to him/her and say thanks.

Just bought (for home use) a new 900 gram container of MSG today. I have no problems related to eating it and haven't seen problems among people who eat things I use it in. I'm not claiming that means it's a farce that people react to it, just that it doesn't apply to my situation regardless. I use it in some of my sausage recipes (I also use phosphates and sodium erythorbate in some applications... so the "ingredients I can't pronounce" crowd may not approve) and pretty much anywhere I want an extra savory kick.

Food.

I'll try to keep track of a few things over time. I have a lot in my cabinet and don't drink very often (haven't touched my cabinet since New Year's Eve) so I have a few things from the list of concerns people have mentioned that are definitely doing some shelf time. We'll see what awaits me the next time I'm in there.

Thanks! I'll pass those along. The cutters were a gift that I wanted to include some recipes and maybe a batch of cookies with but they took longer than expected to arrive so I just wrapped them up with the suggestions already posted here. I'll be having a different set made for another occasion where I will actually need to make the cookies myself so I'm definitely paying attention to the suggestions.

I don't buy "reduced for quick sale" meats, seafood or poultry. I don't care at all what other people think about what's in my cart and I'm fine with saving money but I've opened those reduced packages only to be greeted by the ol' funk of doom enough times in the past to no longer trust it. Anything else, I might take a chance. Actually, yeast would be another one I won't do. I bought a can of yeast last week that has this month as the expiration date, something I didn't notice at the time of purchase. Used it yesterday to make pizza dough and... pretty much dead. Tossed some in a bowl with warm water and sugar just to be sure and 20 minutes later there was still very little happening. I let the dough proof overnight just to see if it would kickstart with extra time. Nope. It wasn't reduced in price but it still taught me a lesson about checking expiration dates.

Nope, you can't watch an employee constantly and I wouldn't want to feel I needed to. Anybody who left me feeling I couldn't take my eyes off of them for a single moment wouldn't be around long. That doesn't eliminate the possibility of it happening but really knowing your staff eliminates a significant percentage of the worry. But all that aside, I've worked with everything from the highly dedicated to the "I'm just here for the paycheck" type and seen them at their best and worst and I've never seen anybody do anything improper to a customer's food or even suggest they might. I've heard the joking or exasperated "What a jerk, I should have (done whatever to) their food." after the fact when dealing with a particularly difficult customer. I've probably muttered something like that to myself at some point in my cooking career when it was super busy and somebody sent something back because they got a pickle that wasn't their favorite shade of green but I've never once considered it as an actual option or said something like that where anyone else could hear it. Maybe I'm fooling myself and I've eaten a lot of spit in my lifetime but I like to think that it really is a very rare occurrence if it happens.

Exactly. And I think the frequency of this sort of thing happening is being greatly overstated, even with the "not often" disclaimer. I've worked a fairly large number of years in restaurant kitchens and never seen this happen or even seen it suggested with any degree of seriousness. Someone spitting in my food is nothing remotely similar to someone calling me an idiot. Whether or not there is potential for physical or psychological harm, even outside of your qualifiers, would greatly depend on one's definition of "harmed". I can tell you with full confidence that a person telling me at the end of my meal that they'd spit in my food would put that person at great risk of physical or psychological harm. But none of that matters in the context of your "What if you didn't know?" scenario. My not knowing renders it irrelevant... but still doesn't support your supposition that it's fine as long as nobody tells me.

I don't understand the concept of being embarrassed over something I like to eat or drink. What other people think about what I like to eat or drink would be at the very bottom of my give-a-crap list.

I buy big rolls of heavy duty cling film and heavy gauge aluminum foil for home use through our supplier at the restaurant. I hate grocery store cling film that's been dumbed down by the manufacturers (I assume due to people complaining it's too hard to work with) to the point that it doesn't cling to much of anything anymore. I get both in the 18" width, the film is 2000' and the foil is 328'. I'm currently working on my second box of each in the past 5 years so they're definitely not fast turnover. That's another thing I like about it... I can buy them and forget about them for a really long time.

Howdy.

Chocolat Chocolat definitely has it.

I tried sea cucumber at a Korean restaurant many years ago. The flavor of the dish was nice. The texture, not so much. It was reminiscent of what I would imagine eating chunks of tire in a nice sauce would be like. I'm fully willing to believe that it was just improperly prepared but I've never tried it again to find out. I had pretty much the same experience with menudo. The soup/sauce part was tasty but I didn't enjoy the tripe at all. There's not a single nice thing I can say about the chitlins I tried except the collard greens and corn bread that accompanied them were good. I swear I tasted those chitlins for two days after I ate them. They'll never get a second chance to win me over.

No picture but a coworker came back from a trip with a big container of jerk pork, jerk chicken and rice and peas from Ted's Jamaican Kitchen in Thunder Bay, Ontario that he picked up for me. I planned to bring it home for dinner tonight because it was a bit much for lunch at work... but one taste put an end to that plan.

Nice Rob! We supposedly get spring morels here but I've never managed to find them.

I wish there was but sadly, it's just as I said. Every Islay scotch I've tried has reminded me of drinking iodine and band-aids. Some more so than others but I have yet to taste anything that brought the word "smoke" to my mind. There is no way everybody who drinks it tastes what I taste or I can't imagine why they'd continue to drink it... so I've made the assumption it's me and stopped worrying about it.

I've had rattlesnake and alligator and honestly feel both are more an experience thing than a food thing (outside of people who eat them as part of their sustenance). Neither was particularly exciting. Not bad in any way, just nothing special about them. I had rattlesnake breaded and fried and it was reminiscent of chicken. I also had it cut in thin slices and cooked in bacon grease, it was reminiscent of eating bacon. So basically, what Rob said... it tastes like whatever it's cooked in or sauced with. I had alligator in a nugget form that was pretty tasty but I don't think chunks of chicken seasoned and cooked the same way would have been largely different. I had alligator sausage which were pretty nondescript. I also had it substituted for the mudbugs in a crawfish pie. Out of all of the snake and gator preparations I tried, that was probably my favorite but I still don't think there was anything about it that was different enough to scream "alligator". Balut is a no-go for me. I have not tried it and will not try it.

That chocolate tart looks really nice. I just wish I had the ability to taste that nice smoky flavor in Islay scotch that people speak of so fondly. I've spent more money than I'm happy about chasing it and always end up just tasting hospital emergency room bandages. I've come to the conclusion that it's just me and I'll have to live without it.